What does a cooperative do?

Cooperative is a cooperative organization form established by the working people voluntarily uniting for cooperative production and cooperative management. The articles of association of the League of International Cooperation stipulates: "Any enterprise that aims at promoting the economic and social progress of its members, operates on the basis of mutual assistance and cooperation, and follows the cooperative principles set by rochdale and revised by the 23rd Congress of the League of International Cooperation can be considered as a cooperative organization." In 1995, the 31st Congress of the International Federation of Cooperatives made the following principled definition: a cooperative is an autonomous organization in which people voluntarily unite with all and democratically controlled enterprises to meet the economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations of its members. In order to accurately understand this definition, the International Cooperative Alliance also made a detailed explanation: 1. Cooperatives are autonomous organizations, which are as independent as possible from the government and private enterprises. 2. Cooperatives are "people's associations". Many grass-roots cooperatives in the world only allow a single "natural person" to join, but joint cooperatives allow "legal persons" to join, including companies. Usually, the members of a cooperative are other cooperatives. 3, people's joint "voluntary", within the objectives and resources of the cooperative, members have the freedom to join and quit. 4. "Meet the economic, social and cultural needs of * * *", which emphasizes that cooperatives are organized by their members and focus on their members. The needs of members are the main purpose of cooperatives. 5. A cooperative is an enterprise owned and democratically controlled by * * *, and the ownership of the cooperative belongs to all members on a democratic basis. In explaining the principle of cooperatives, the articles of association pointed out that participation in cooperation should be voluntary; Cooperatives are democratic organizations and implement democratic elections and management; The surplus of the cooperative shall be owned by all members, and after deducting the development fund, it shall be distributed according to the proportion of the members' business contacts; Strengthen cooperative education and actively develop contacts and cooperation between regions and countries. It can be seen that cooperatives are not only production or business enterprises with legal person status, but also mass organizations. As a mass economic organization, cooperatives have their own unique organizational principles and articles of association. All members who join a cooperative must abide by these principles and act according to the articles of association, fulfill their due obligations and enjoy their due rights. A cooperative also has a clear purpose and purpose, otherwise it will not be a cooperative. Therefore, not all kinds of cooperative organizations, such as cooperative enterprises, partnership enterprises and economic consortia, can be called cooperatives. From cooperative production and management to the formation of cooperative organizations, the above conditions must be met and a process of formation and development is needed. Therefore, there is no cooperation, collaboration or association, so there must be cooperative organizations, and cooperative organizations are not necessarily cooperatives. Cooperative is a typical form of cooperative organization, and its scale is large and small. General cooperative economy refers to cooperative economy. In the 195s, 196s and 197s, when people mentioned cooperatives, they usually thought of supply and marketing cooperatives that sold things. This kind of cooperative is that each person invests a few people, and then the production brigade buys some goods and sells them in the village. At that time, "investment money" was always mentioned, but it was "rabbit money" when it was not true, which really puzzled people for a long time. When the economy is slowly liberalized and the cooperatives gradually dissipate, we should see that the cooperatives still have its positive significance in both the primary and advanced stages of socialism.

[ Edit this paragraph] Types of cooperatives

First, based on the production link, it is divided into:

(1) Production cooperatives. That is, all kinds of cooperatives engaged in production activities such as planting, gathering, breeding, fishing and hunting, animal husbandry, processing and construction. Such as agricultural production cooperatives, handicraft production cooperatives and construction cooperatives. (2) Circulation cooperatives. Cooperatives engaged in service business in circulation areas such as promotion, purchase and transportation. Such as supply and marketing cooperatives, transportation cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, purchase cooperatives, etc. (3) Credit cooperatives. That is, cooperatives that accept deposits and loans from members to members. Such as rural credit cooperatives and urban credit cooperatives. (4) service cooperatives. That is, cooperatives that provide members with certain convenient conditions for production and life through various labor services and services. Such as leasing cooperatives, labor cooperatives, medical cooperatives, insurance cooperatives, and utilization cooperatives.

Second, according to its own functional standards, it can be divided into:

(1) production cooperatives. Its content is the same as that of the aforementioned production cooperatives. (2) service cooperatives. Its contents are the same as those of the aforementioned service cooperatives. Among service cooperatives, the common ones are: a. Consumer cooperatives. A consumer cooperative refers to a cooperative organization that is composed of consumers with the same capital contribution, and mainly serves its members by operating consumer goods. B. supply and marketing cooperatives. Supply and marketing cooperatives refer to cooperatives that purchase various means of production and sell their members' products at the same time to meet their various production needs. It is a more popular cooperative organization in the world at present. There are two modes of operation of supply and marketing cooperatives, one is to specialize in supply business, and the other is to run agricultural products transportation and sales or daily industrial products sales. C. distribution cooperatives. A distribution cooperative refers to a cooperative engaged in the joint promotion of goods produced by its members, and sometimes also engaged in the classification, packaging and processing of products. The business of transportation and marketing cooperatives mainly focuses on the transportation and marketing of agricultural products. Under the production conditions of large machinery industry, industrial products are mainly sold through various large commercial institutions, while agricultural production and agricultural products are not very balanced because of their natural characteristics, and their prices change greatly. By organizing cooperatives to specialize in sales, economic risks can be avoided as much as possible. At present, the distribution cooperatives in the world mainly adopt three different distribution systems: first, the purchase distribution system, that is, the cooperative purchases agricultural products before selling them, and the sales profit has nothing to do with the members; Second, the entrusted transportation and marketing system, that is, the cooperative agent sells, and all the sales money is paid to the members after deducting certain expenses, and the profits and losses are borne by the members; The third is the cooperative marketing system, that is, the cooperative sells the products of the same level handed over by members, and the members get average income. D. insurance cooperatives. An insurance cooperative refers to a cooperative in which individual workers, owners and employees unite and operate insurance business with members as the insurance objects in the form of mutual assistance in accordance with the provisions of the insurance law. This kind of insurance organization, the members pay the insurance premium, the members operate and manage themselves, * * * share the disaster losses and safeguard the members' own interests. There are three main types of insurance cooperatives: first, consumer insurance cooperatives, mainly life insurance; Second, workers' insurance cooperatives, mainly focusing on unemployment insurance and accident insurance; The third is agricultural insurance cooperatives, which mainly focus on agricultural production and harvest insurance. E. use cooperatives. The use of cooperatives is a kind of cooperative in which cooperatives buy all kinds of public equipment or means of production related to production for members to use separately. At present, the commonly used cooperatives in the world are: agricultural machinery utilization cooperatives, breeding livestock utilization cooperatives (using improved varieties and breeding livestock), electric utilization cooperatives, warehouse utilization cooperatives, water conservancy utilization cooperatives, land utilization cooperatives and so on. F. medical cooperatives. Medical cooperative is a form of public cooperative. A cooperative that provides medical and health care services to its members by purchasing medical equipment and hiring medical personnel. Due to the different scope of services, the specific forms are also different: some create independent hospitals, some only set up simple clinics, and some only set up cheap pharmacies for members. G. public cooperatives. A public cooperative is a cooperative that stores all kinds of equipment related to daily life for its members to use. It is different from a consumer cooperative in that the equipment it stores is owned by the cooperative and is only used by members, not sold to them. It is different from the use of cooperatives, and the equipment it buys is needed for life, not for production. Public cooperatives have many kinds of business, such as canteen, barber shop, bath, laundry, nursery, library, teahouse and theater. At present, residential cooperatives and medical cooperatives, which are particularly popular in Europe and America, are the two most developed forms of public cooperatives. H. labor cooperatives. A labor cooperative is a cooperative that contracts its business, and its members use collective or individual labor tools and provide labor, and work together. In addition to receiving due wages, members have the right to participate in the distribution of year-end surplus according to the services provided by members. Most of the businesses operated by labor cooperatives belong to all kinds of labor services with relatively simple labor tools and relatively short working hours, such as construction, transportation, loading and unloading, repair and logging.

III. Divided according to whether the cooperative issues shares:

(1) Joint-stock cooperative. A joint-stock cooperative is a foreign cooperative that issues shares, which corresponds to a non-joint-stock cooperative. The holder of the stock is the shareholder and owner of the cooperative, and the stock is the proof of the ownership of the shareholders' shares, which can be bought, sold, transferred or inherited. Members of a joint-stock cooperative cannot quit the cooperative, but only by selling all their shares. In essence, joint-stock cooperatives only raise funds by issuing shares, and other aspects are still the same as general cooperatives. (2) Non-joint-stock cooperatives. Non-joint-stock cooperatives refer to cooperatives that do not issue shares, but issue certificates to their members to prove their rights in cooperatives.

Fourth, according to the vertical level of cooperatives:

(1) International Cooperative Alliance. The International Cooperative Alliance is an international cooperative organization and an unofficial international organization. Founded in London, England in 1895, it is now headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Its main members are the national cooperative association of cooperative organizations of various countries, the national association of cooperative associations and regional cooperative associations with national organizations. There are supply and marketing, insurance, housing, banks and other types of organizations in the field of consumption; There are handicraft, industry, agriculture, fishery and other types of organizations in the production field. Some international cooperative organizations have also joined the International Cooperative Alliance. The purpose of the International Cooperative Alliance is to spread the idea of cooperation and the principles and methods of cooperatives to the whole world, promote the development of cooperative undertakings in various countries, protect the interests of various forms of cooperatives, maintain friendly relations among organizations of member countries, promote economic exchanges among various forms of cooperatives, help and promote the economic and social progress of people in all countries, and strive to establish lasting peace and security. (2) All-China Federation (called "Central Associated Press" in some countries), that is, the cooperative Federation of a country (or "United Society" for short). For example, Japan's Federation of All-China Agricultural Cooperative Economic Organizations (hereinafter referred to as "All-China Agriculture") and South Korea's National Agricultural Cooperative Association Central Committee. (3) local associations. Refers to cooperative unions established at the local level, such as provincial (municipality directly under the central government, autonomous region) cooperative unions and county cooperative unions. (4) Grassroots cooperatives. Mainly refers to the production and business operation units at the grass-roots level, with producers and operators as the main body, and various types of cooperatives established on the basis of resources according to the principle of cooperative system [1].

[ Edit this paragraph] The origin of farmers' cooperative economic organizations

The so-called cooperative economic organizations first emphasize "cooperation" and then "economic organizations", which are two basic elements. 1. About cooperation. The original intention of "cooperation" refers to the * * * action and cooperative action between members. Cooperation is voluntary, independent and self-help, that is to say, it is a kind of cooperation in which members of the cooperation organization help each other themselves for the same purpose. The idea of human cooperation first appeared in the Middle Ages, when farmers and craftsmen hoped to establish an ideal organization of equality, justice, cooperation and mutual help. These thoughts became the basis of utopian socialism. The grass-roots organization designed by the French utopian socialist Fourier is called "Franji", which is an organized cooperative society with * * * production and * * * consumption; The ideal model envisioned by Owen in Britain is a parallelogram cooperative new village. However, these cooperative organizations are just fantasies and have not been put into practice. At present, the first most successful cooperative in the world is the "Justice Pioneer Consumer Cooperative" established spontaneously by 28 unemployed textile workers in rochdale, England in 1844. At that time, each person contributed 1 pound as a share, ***28 pounds. Later, it gradually developed and grew, with the number of members increasing to nearly 3, and the share capital increasing to 4, pounds. The rochdale Principles it established later became the basic principles guiding the development of international cooperatives. Under the guidance of this principle, various countries in the world have set up different types of cooperative organizations, such as farmers' cooperatives in the United States, credit cooperatives and agricultural cooperatives in Germany, and agricultural cooperative combinations in Japan and South Korea. International cooperation organizations such as international cooperation alliance, international agricultural producers alliance, credit alliance and European consumers alliance have been established in the world. The first cooperative in the history of China came into being in 1918. It was the "Peking University Consumer Commune" founded by Professor Hu Jun and his students who advocated the idea of cooperation. In September, 1922, Mao Zedong founded the "Road and Mine Workers' Consumption Cooperative" in Anyuan, which was the first cooperative under the leadership of China * * * Production Party. After the founding of New China, China generally implemented the road of cooperation, and established supply and marketing cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, credit cooperatives, production cooperatives and transportation cooperatives in towns and villages. By 1955, the cooperation of agriculture, commerce or handicraft industry had developed rapidly. However, because the central government's line later turned to the full implementation of socialist transformation, under the people's commune system for 2 years, affected by the administrative planned economy, the farmers' cooperative economic organizations deteriorated and became increasingly unsuitable for the requirements of economic development. After the reform and opening up, the household contract responsibility system was implemented in rural areas, which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of farmers for production, promoted the development of rural productivity and greatly improved the lives of farmers in a certain period of time. However, agriculture is always a weak industry, and farmers are a vulnerable group. With the development of market economy, the weak position of agriculture and farmers is becoming more and more obvious in front of the market, and it is difficult to resist market risks by decentralized management of one household. In this case, farmers chose to hold groups and cooperate. In 1982, 17 farmers in jiepai town, Tianchang County, Anhui Province jointly established the first new farmer cooperative organization in China after the reform-Fisheries Research Association. Since the 199s, all localities have actively explored, developed and improved various cooperative economic organizations. In addition to the original community cooperative economic organizations, supply and marketing cooperatives and credit cooperatives have been developed and improved to a certain extent, various new rural cooperative economic organizations such as farmers' professional cooperatives, professional associations and joint-stock cooperatives based on the principles of democracy, equality, voluntariness and mutual benefit have emerged in large numbers and developed rapidly. 2. About economic organization. The so-called economic organization is a very broad economic term, which refers to all social groups engaged in economic activities, from large multinational companies to small partnerships of three or two people, all of which are within its scope. It can be said that there are five lines and eight works, three religions and nine streams, all of which are all inclusive, without exception. The rural economic organizations we are talking about are not economic organizations in this broad sense, but have their specific meanings and categories. It refers to rural micro-management organizations and service organizations. The new rural cooperative economic organization is a change compared with the traditional economic organization form.